so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ― Maya Angelou

The Blue Lakes Trail, Colorado

The year of preparation and anticipation buzzed by me since I'd read the article in Outdoor Photographer Magazine featuring the Blue Lakes Trail in Colorado. Nestled between rugged ridges and peaks over 13,000 feet in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness area sits the Blue Lakes Pass. Within the pass, this trail visits three spectacular glacial cirques, meanders past a breathtaking waterfall, all the while set among fields of seasonal wildflowers.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

I often feel like I live my life lurking around in the dark. I head off to work in the dark and more often than not as I move into a new landscape to shoot I'm heading in to catch the twilight hour or sunrise, thus traveling or hiking in the dark. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this causes a bit of apprehension and anxiety, especially in an area I've not traveled in before. Going down the wrong dirt road in the pitch of darkness, navigating dark trails even with headlamps, encountering the wildlife on the move, all this can get ones adrenaline pumping.

Founded over 15 years ago by Michael Reichmann, a professional photographer for over 45 years with an impressive background to say the least! Together with Kevin Raber who also has spent over 40 years in the industry and is now the new CEO of Luminous Landscapes, the place is taking on a bit of a transformation, literally. The new layout for the site was unveiled recently and is modern, colorful and visually exciting.

The Luminous Landscape site has been an essential resource for my continuing photographic education from equipment reviews to video tutorials to discovering new and inspiring works from others in the craft.

I'm happy to announce that I've written my second Lula essay, entitled "Life After Luminous" and I'll be returning several times a year as a contributor. I couldn't be more excited to be part of such an extraordinary presence in the photographic community.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Thursday, March 12, 2015

"Popular Photography Magazine,formerly known as Popular Photography & Imaging, also called Pop Photo, is a monthly American consumer magazine that has the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an editorial staff twice the size of its nearest competitor"

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Grand Canyon

"Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it. A flower is beautiful. But this is beautiful the way that a person is beautiful- terrifying with its jagged edges, yet seductive with its crevices that hide so many secrets."

Monday, February 02, 2015

I share the calendar spot-light with some of my absolute favorite photographers!

Thank you, Aperture Academy for a thought-provoking interview and a fine platform. To see my name up there with the likes of Art Wolfe, Guy Tal, David Cobb and Paul Marcellini and Stephen Oachs to name a few.

Sunday, February 01, 2015

The Grand Canyon

“Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it. A flower is beautiful. But this is beautiful the way that a person is beautiful- terrifying with its jagged edges, yet seductive with its crevices that hide so many secrets.”

Friday, January 23, 2015

"Love at first sight is always spoken in the past tense. The scene is perfectly adapted to this temporal phenomenon: distinct, abrupt, framed, it is already a memory (the nature of a photograph is not to represent but to memorialize)... this scene has all the magnificence of an accident: I cannot get over having had this good fortune: to meet what matches my desire". Roland Barthes

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." — Henry David Thoreau

One of the most exquisite of scenes I think I've ever viewed. The perfect time of day and light created this breathtaking back-lit scene that gives way to feeling lost and small in something of a displaced Japanese garden perhaps. Just somewhere else bright, exotic and surreal. Beautiful reflective canyon light bouncing off 3 canyon walls at once. Soft and warm as the tree mimics the canyon curves perfectly.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Thursday, January 15, 2015

I had a couple of hours to come up with a bio and photo of myself for a photography project I was working on. To be truthful, I knew I had to do it but procrastinated hugely. I was actually on my way out to hike with my dog and had to turn around when I got a email to "get it done" today.

Even though at one point in my years as a California beach girl, I did print work. I was never prepared for the industry. I'd been "scouted" one day at a gym and didn't give it much thought. Easy money, side work until a "particular" shot went viral on the internet and while driving one day in my car, I actually heard the local DJ's talking about my photo and myself. It was utterly surreal. I became suspiciously fearful of that kind of attention and I started to change. I loved the photography but after a while, the act of having the camera pointed at me created a full-blown phobia. I have no idea why, I just know the anxiety it began to produced. If you want to get rid of me, you'll never have to insult me, just aim a camera at me and I'm gone.

How do you explain such a fear? At a breakfast meeting with a group of photographers, one literally sat across the table and aimed his camera at me while I tried to eat. I got up and left never saying a word to anyone. I now found myself avoid meetings, meet-ups, anything like that, and yes, I know it's my loss.

After delving into a crash course in self-portraiture this weekend I realized the whole time my heart was pounding! I'd get the camera in focus and my face wouldn't be. I'd get my face in focus and my tripod wouldn't be. I had a tough time with focus and this is what I ended up with. I had this naive notion that as my work was getting more and more exposure, I could still live in an anonymous role as just the person behind the camera or behind the pen. However such theories were starting to break apart, into reality. Especially with the advent of social media, obscurity is an obscure notion. Recognition happens, albeit uncomfortably.

Monday, January 05, 2015

“I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and the future - the timelessness of the rocks and the hills - all the people who have existed there. I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.” ― Andrew Wyeth —

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

“One love, one heart, one destiny.” ― Bob Marley

A recent interview for a photography magazine about my images and time spent in Sedona had me reminiscing about the evolution of my work and how without sounding cliche, it changed everything about my life.

After my mom died, I sort of threw myself into hiking and camping and Oak Creek Canyon and Beaver Creek became my favorite areas to explore and spend time. I decided to start a writing project to document and create trip logs for my hikes and camping for my blog. I always carried a little Olympus C-770 point and shoot digital camera in my backpack but my hand-held and unsophisticated images just didn't do the landscapes justice. I wanted a much more professional look for my blog and frankly, I blamed the camera.

In what was a monumental purchase for me and marked the seriousness in which I approached this project, I bought a DSLR. I worked two jobs and after almost a year I had enough money to buy a Canon 450D Rebel and a Sigma 17-70mm lens. I came home with my new camera and unpacked it, stared at it, attempted to read the manual and broke out in a cold sweat. I was in way over my head and I put the camera back in the box and wouldn't touch it again for a year. I started checking out photography workshops and found that most cost even more than the camera did and I seemed back at square one. It became clear after attempting to decipher the manual that everything evolved around the concept of exposure.

I would sit on my floor and hold that camera and to me, it was one of most beautiful things I'd ever owned. Yet, its complexities eluded me and in truth I was afraid of it. I had to teach myself how to use it and I needed a basic education in photography and starting with exposure seemed like the best place. I did a lot of research to find which particular book most people found helpful and I came up with Jeff Wignall's book "Exposure Photo Workshop" and that's where I started and it became my bible. I started watching the video tutorials on how to operate the Canon 450D and slowly but surely things started to make sense.

So I headed out. I had a small Canon backpack that held my little Rebel, one lens, water and snacks for an entire day and my book on exposure. I'd camp at Beaver Creek or Manzanita and spend the day on either the West Fork Trail or the Bell Trail and practice my photography and I did this faithfully every weekend and every free moment I had. The images were mediocre at best but started to gain some attention via social media. I wrote often and honestly about my quest. The trials and tribulations, the frustrations and the set backs of a newbie photographer but more importantly discovering that in those countless hours of solitude among some of the most beautiful scenery, a life was transforming.

The interview brought me back to one particular moment. A pivotal moment for so many reasons. I had been photographing just down the creek from Slide Rock in Sedona and was trying to set up a composition that required me to get into the creek. This was a cold and stormy morning and it wasn't particularly smart for me to be in the creek. I was in up to my waist and it started to rain as the wind picked up. I headed back up the side of the canyon and sat under the bridge for shelter. I was freezing and it was a long walk back. I huddled under the bridge hoping the rain would subside and I had this clear realization that wasn't kind. Sitting under the bridge in the rain and just started to cried. Who was I trying to kid? I couldn't afford workshops or the education that others could. I couldn't afford the gear or even a decent backpack. I couldn't even afford the proper clothing to be out in the elements, hence sitting like a drowned cold rat under a bridge and I couldn't even tell my mom. It was a spectacular moment of self-pity.

Delving into the world of photography in some ways has been more about defining my own character than simply taking images. I can't even count how many times I've asked myself, "how bad do you want it". In relating this story once to a photographer friend, I said I've always felt like the poor kid looking in the window at the more privileged, the drier warmer privileged. In truth, I can't say that some of those sentiments don't still linger a bit with the constant barrage on social media of the daily posts of those purchasing the latest most advanced gear or exotic workshop locations far out of my own reach at least in this lifetime.

A couple of years later, I'm still here. I still feel like the kid looking in but different. More at peace and extremely grateful because now I know why I'm here. I'm here because I simply love photography. I love chasing the light, I love reading everything I can about doing just that. I love those countless hours of solitude tinkering around sand dunes and studying rocks. I love capturing an image in those seconds of the day that are magic. I love editing and I still sit on my floor and hold my camera and think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned.

Eventually, with hard work and time, I've acquired most of what I'll ever need. I bought a down jacket and good winter clothing and gear that allows me to stay in the elements longer and dryer. I upgraded to a full-frame DLSR (used) and added a few previously owned lenses. I edit on my Mac laptop that I carry with me everywhere.

So this is why I tell people that I learned my photography in a forest, the enchanted forest of West Fork. Countless hours wandering and studying the light. Working on sharpening techniques and simplifying compositions. Testing exposures and new ideas. I never really needed anything that made me cry that one day under the bridge, except maybe the jacket. Since those early days, I've branched out further and explored more complex locations. It's still all a learning curve for sure.

I think of photography like I do poetry. You can sit poised with a precious golden pen or an old pencil but either way, the art comes from the heart. Doesn't matter what you write with.

In getting back to the story, I'd been contacted by a columnist at a major photography magazine (details later) who asked if I would do an interview and talk about my photography in and around Sedona. Now this alone, given the journey I'd just talked about was enough to put a huge smile on my face and certainly gives one that sense of validation but it gets even better. The columnist just happens to also the be the author of that very first book I read on exposure.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Photography is as much a journey in search of your own private truisms as it is about discovering light and composition in exquisite environments.Perhaps why I prefer those moments to be private and quite. Alone in the landscapes when the light is pure and new and you've poised yourself to be a witness to its emergence and to its dissolution calls for a certain personal honesty in those lone spaces.

Friday, December 05, 2014

This website has been an critical source of information, education and inspiration for my emerging career. Kevin Raber has been watching my development since the very beginning so he's seen the good, the bad and the emerging.

Kevin and Michael and Jeff have been a huge part of my development and I'm very grateful for the honor of being featured here for my work.

The Sierra Club

“She called herself an angel, and wandered the world from girlhood till death. She lived every kind of life and dreamt every kind of dream. She was wild in her wandering, a drop of free water. She believed only in her life, and only in her dreams. She called herself an angel, and her god was Beauty.”
― Roman Payne﻿

The Wilderness Society

National Wildlife Federation

Gratitude

The majority of my paintings and photographs have been donated to charities and non-profit organizations like Phoenix Children's Hospital, Healing Images and various local conservation efforts. I also often donate my work to help local community based businesses if I believe in the cause.
I strive to keep this blog free of advertising and corporate sponsorships while still maintaining current and interesting content quality. Preparation of the images and paintings are done at my expense on my singular income. It's just me.
Many of those I've helped have asked if they could return the favor or do something nice in return so I created this button.